


Count On Me (To 52)

by Katyakora



Series: Coldwestallen Week [12]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ColdWestAllen Week, Heavy Angst, Multi, Temporary Character Death, time loops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 01:00:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katyakora/pseuds/Katyakora
Summary: In which Iris gets a cute new jacket, meets Death and saves the day.





	Count On Me (To 52)

**Author's Note:**

> ColdWestAllen Week Spring 2017 Day 5: Diligence
> 
> Warning: Temporary character death
> 
> Also its 4am, this is barely edited, and the coldwestallen isn't explicit, so sorry bout that. It also jumps around a lot, let me know if it's hard to follow.

“Oh,” Iris murmured, putting the innocuous looking little sphere back on its stand for the 37th (38th? 36th?) time. She’d given up on throwing it across the room in impotent rage a while ago (11 times, 4 more where she’d attempted to crush it under her heel). Iris let the weight of a thousand hours sag her shoulders as she leaned heavily against the bench and tried not to scream.

 

“Iris?”

 

She turned to face Leonard, who was watching her strange reaction with concern. Iris ran her eyes over his face, savouring the sight of it free of blood or pain or loss.

 

“Fuck it,” she whispered and crossed the space between them to drag him into a kiss. He froze, startled, but quickly leaned into it, pressing back despite his confusion. His lips were just as warm and soft as they were the last time, his hands gentle on her waist this time instead of too tight with fear on her arms. They parted just as Gideon's voice echoed through the armoury, just as it had every time before.

 

“Warning; I am detecting an unusual, localised fluctuation in temporal radiation.”

 

As much as Iris wanted to appreciate the dazed look she'd just left on Leonard's face, she knew there was no time. She had to act fast.

 

“Gideon, lock down the engine room!” she ordered.

* * *

Iris’s giddiness hadn't shrunk even a little as they strolled through the Waverider. When the Legends dropped in to make a pitstop and a few repairs, Iris had demanded a tour since she hadn't gotten to see the ship last time. Most of the crew were on shore leave, but Jax and Mick were still onboard working on the engines, and a bored Leonard had graciously agreed to give them a tour. Barry had gotten bored in the fabrication room but Iris had no regrets taking as long as she did in there; her new jacket was warm, stylish and bulletproof. Leonard had been surprisingly good at providing design critiques. Barry had wandered back to the engine room to pepper Jax and Mick with questions, so Leonard just continued the tour without him.

 

“I didn't know you guys had an armoury,” Iris commented as they stepped into the well-stocked room. She’d been a little guarded around the unrepentant thief initially, but after the half hour they'd just spent discussing women's fashion, she'd noticeably relaxed.

 

“Neither did we,” Leonard answered with a mirthless chuckle. “Hunter decided we didn't need to know that little detail. It's not on the schematics and doesn't show up on any scans. The only reason we found out about it is because Gideon still needs to take the space into account for life support functions.”

 

Iris nodded as she looked around, weaving between the shelves. She picked up a strange looking device that looked more like a scanner than a weapon.

 

“That’s the Roofie Stick,” Leonard explained, an amused curl to his lip.

 

“Roofie Stick?” Iris asked with a slightly judging raised eyebrow.

 

“Think Men In Black,” he explained, stepping forward to pull it out of her hands and demonstrate, “you just aim for the eyes, hit the button and flash, they’re down. It’s got a real name, Raymond knows it, but we just call it the Roofie Stick.”

 

“Makes sense,” Iris said with a chuckle, and continued to look around.

 

A tiny, steampunk-looking sphere on a stand caught her eye. It just seemed so out of place compared to everything else. She reached out and picked it up, surprised by the weight of it.

 

“What is this?” she asked, examining it. Leonard walked up behind her to look over her shoulder.

 

“Raymond calls it the Oculus Sphere,” he supplied, something dark twisting his voice as he looked at it. “He and Jax built it out of the remains of the Oculus to help them fix Time itself after a particularly colossal screw-up. Now, it's mostly a stupid looking paperweight, but Gideon says it occasionally throws up weird temporal readings, so I'd put that down if I were you.”

 

“Oh,” Iris murmured, putting the innocuous looking little sphere back on its stand.

* * *

 

Of all people, Iris had no idea why she was the one stuck in a time loop. She wasn't a genius, she didn't have powers, nor did she have years of training and practice honing deadly skills to a fine point. She wasn't even supposed to be on the damn ship.

 

“You can do this,” Iris whispered with shaky determination. Her hands trembled as she raised the futuristic pistol. “You know what happens if you don't. Gideon, now!”

 

The door opened. Iris fired.

 

BLAM!

 

The pirate went down, his eye reduced to a gaping red hole. Iris felt like her heart stopped in her chest as she watched him fall. She had just killed a man in cold blood. Her hesitation cost her greatly, as one of the dead man's companions promptly turned and shot her. The shot punched into her shoulder, sending her falling backwards with a pained scream.

 

“Iris!”

 

She heard the cry and knew what came next, knew there was no way she could warn him in time. Barry phased through the energy-field he'd been trapped in and Iris could do nothing as his atoms were shredded by it.

 

“BARRY!”

 

Iris was barely aware of the scream as it was ripped from her lungs. Her vision swam and she felt like she couldn’t breath. Barry was dead. She had just seen him disintegrate right before her eyes. Rough hands grabbed her out of nowhere to haul her to her feet. A face swam into focus as she clutched onto the person in front of her. Distantly, she became aware of the sound of gunfire, the time pirates still firing as the others retaliated.

 

“Hold it together, West, or we’re ALL dead!” Leonard snapped, dragging her down the hall as Mick laid cover fire in their wake. The last image Iris had of the bridge was Jax lying near the energy net that killed Barry, his eyes open and empty of life.

 

Barry is dead, her numb brain repeated over and over. You couldn’t save him. Jax is dead. You couldn’t save him.

 

BLAM! BLAM!

 

Iris fell as Leonard tumbled next to her, his back smoking from where the laser fire hit him. Iris could only watch as the light left his eyes.

* * *

“Gideon, lock down the engine room!” she ordered.

 

“What? Why?” Leonard demanded, pulled out of the daze her kiss had left him in. Out of nowhere, the whole ship began to shake.

 

“That’s why,” Iris answered. “Gideon, authorisation Pond Sparrow Centurion Box.”

 

“Authorisation verified,” Gideon responded.

 

“Gideon, activate emergency lockdown.”

 

“Lockdown activated, Captain West. Another timeship currently has us locked within its tractor beam. I believe they are towing us into the temporal zone.”

 

“Captain West?” Leonard asked incredulously, but was ignored.

 

“Employ what countermeasures you can, but DO NOT engage their ship’s computer! Put up every firewall you’ve got,” Iris ordered. She finally looked back at Leonard, who was clearly furious, but she knew by now that he was only angry because he didn’t know what was going on.

 

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, verifying her thoughts. She met his eyes and let herself hope that maybe, this time, he would live.

 

“We’re about to be boarded,” she told him baldly. “And I’m sorry to ask, but I really, really need you to trust me. I need you to stay here.”

 

“Are you insane? And how the hell do you know Gideon’s codes?” he snapped, clearly still frazzled.

 

“It’s a long story, and we don’t have time,” she snapped back and then let her tone turn imploring. “Please, Leonard? I need you to trust me.”

 

The ship shook again. Leonard’s eyes searched her face for a long, tense moment. His jaw clenched.

 

“You get two minutes, and then I come out guns blazing. Understood?”

 

“Deal.” Iris surprised him again by sealing it with a quick kiss. She slipped away before he could respond, snagging a rifle from a shelf as she strode out the door.

 

Iris slung the gun’s strap over her shoulder as she strode down the hall. She had only just reached the end when Barry zipped around the corner, coming to a halt in front of her.

 

“Iris, the ship is under attack!” he exclaimed, “Gideon isn’t responding and the others are locked in the engine room.”

 

“I know,” Iris said sadly, raising the Roofie Stick and flashing it in Barry’s eyes. He dropped like a stone. “I’m sorry.”

 

She dragged him back down the hall, shoving him into the armoury with Leonard and leaving again before Leonard could so much as call after her.

 

“Gideon, lock the armoury,” Iris ordered, heading briskly for the bridge.

 

“Yes, Captain. The enemy timeship is attempting to force open the airlock.”

 

“Let them,” Iris muttered as she sat in the pilot’s chair and began hitting buttons.

* * *

 

“You want a flying lesson NOW?” Mick roared as he flew erratically through the temporal zone, dodging laser fire.

 

“Just shout what you’re doing as you’re doing it!” Iris yelled back from her seat.

 

“You need to work on your priorities,” Leonard mumbled from the seat next to her, pale and clammy as he tried unsuccessfully to stem the flow of blood from the wound in his gut.

 

“Just thinking about the future,” Iris murmured, keeping an ear on what Mick was shouting and an eye on Leonard as he got paler and paler.

* * *

 

“Captain, the external dorsal airlock door has been breached.”

 

“Bring up the visual,” Iris ordered, priming the engines. The timing would have to be perfect. A video popped up of several heavily armed people clambering through a hole into the airlock chamber. “Four.” Two of them set up some kind of portable machine, attaching it to the internal airlock door as more of their fellows entered the small space. “Seven.” The machine lit up, sending some kind of beam at the door. “Nine.” Iris’s hand gripped the throttle. The metal of the door began to glow. One more man entered the airlock. “Ten!”

 

With that word, Iris floored the accelerator. There was a great lurch and a horrible crunching sound as Iris tore off the port the pirates had attached to their ship. On the screen, all ten men were ripped out into the void of the timestream. Iris didn’t watch, too busy trying to get as much of a head start as she could before the other ship caught up to them.

 

“The enemy ship is in pursuit,” Gideon informed her, just like she had 11 times before.

 

“Let me know when they’re in mag-harpoon range.” Iris really hated mag-harpoons. Those and-

 

“Attack shuttles detected.”

 

“Fuck!” Iris swore under her breath. Usually they tried to harpoon them first. “Gideon, take over! Keep up evasive maneuvers.” She got out of the pilot’s chair and ran to Rip’s study, rifling through a drawer for an earpiece. “Gideon, radio communication only. Let me know when they hit and what sections.”

 

The ship shuddered and veered off course.

 

“First shuttle has made contact with the hangar bay door. They have begun drilling.”

 

“Of course they have,” Iris muttered as she lifted a panel off the wall and slipped into the veins of the Waverider.

* * *

“How did you even know this was here?” Barry asked, trying not to shift too much in the tiny space. In the pitch darkness, touch and sound were so much more acute that his whisper felt deafening.

 

“Cased every inch of this ship the first chance I got,” Leonard explained, his breath brushing Iris’s ear. Unlike Barry, he was perfectly still save for the minute shift of his chest as he breathed. With the three of them squeezed into the tiny space, that was definitely a good thing. Iris was personally taking great comfort from the familiar feel of Barry pressed against her front and the strong, reassuring presence of Leonard against her back. It was a heady reminder that they were still alive, they still had a chance. She could still save them.

 

“Do you think Mick and Jax are okay?” Barry whispered.

 

“Jax is smart and Mick’ll watch his back. They’ll figure a way out of this,” Leonard answered him confidently. Iris didn’t have the heart to tell them that if those two had left the engine room, Jax would be dead by now and Mick would be a prisoner on the pirates’ ship. She sighed and let her head drop back onto Leonard’s shoulder. She felt him tense behind her and waited. Slowly, ever so slowly, he relaxed.

 

“Do you think we’ll get out of this alive?” she asked no one in particular.

 

“Of course we will,” Barry answered immediately, ever the optimist.

 

“We’ll figure it out,” Leonard added, ever the planner.

 

Iris just took a shuddering breath and savoured the moment, enjoying being so close to the pair of them. After all the time she had spent running, fighting, trying to save them, she had begun to appreciate the quiet moments more. She liked this one the best, she thought. It felt like they were holding the edges of her sanity together and if she tried hard enough, she could pretend they were both holding her. Taking comfort in the touch of both her lover and another man had once made her feel guilty, but she’d given up on feeling guilty about anything 6 loops ago.

* * *

 

Iris exited the crawlspace from a panel behind the jumpship. To her left, a large patch of the hangar door was glowing where the drills had almost busted through. Iris didn’t hesitate, she slipped inside the jumpship, trying hard not to look at the clean seats that her mind told her should be soaked in blood. She began flipping switches and bypassing several important safety measures as the glow on the door got brighter and brighter.

 

The glowing patch of the door disintegrated into dust, leaving a large entry hole. Iris hit the accelerator on the very much locked down jumpship. The carefully aimed thrusters sent a blast of heat through the new hole, incinerating anyone and anything on the other side. Iris quickly jumped out, grabbed the panel that had covered her crawlspace and put it over the hole. She jumped back in the jumpship and hit the thrusters again, using their heat to crudely fuse the panel over the breach.

 

“Second shuttle has made contact,” Gideon informed her in her earpiece. “They have breached the external ventral airlock.”

 

“Damn,” Iris hissed, knowing she couldn’t get there in time. “How many on board?”

 

“Scans indicate eight lifeforms. They have breached the internal airlock.”

 

Iris hefted her rifle, priming it and checking the sights. “Guess it’s time to say hello.”

 

With a last look at the now silent jumpship, Iris slipped back into the crawlspace.

* * *

“Try not to move,” Leonard said as he gently laid Iris on the seats of the jumpship. In the distance, gunfire could be heard. Iris felt cold as she watched her blood seep out onto the seats from her stomach and her thigh, despite the warm hands Leonard had pressed against her wounds.

 

“17,” she said weakly, making Leonard frown at her. “Managed to last...17 loops, without dying.”

 

Leonard’s frown deepened as he placed his fingers to her neck, reading her thin and thready pulse.

 

“You said it resets once Barry and I have both died,” he said thoughtfully and she nodded, “but if you’re the only one who remembers the loops, what happens when you die?”

 

“I don’t know,” she admitted, looking into his bright eyes. If this was how it ended, at least she would go out with a pretty sight. And she would get to be with Barry. “Guess we’re gon’ find out.”

 

Leonard hissed in a breath, pursed his lips and looked down. He then shook his head and looked back up at her, a renewed fire in his eyes. “No,” he stated firmly, “you are going to fix this. You’re gonna save us. Promise me, Iris.”

 

Iris blinked at him, feeling her own determination reignite. She nodded. Leonard nodded back and leaned forward, pressing an unexpected kiss to her cold lips. Iris only had a moment to drink in his warmth before he was gone, running back towards the gunfire. Iris closed her eyes and waited for either death or the hell she’d been stuck in. She wasn’t sure which she was hoping for.

* * *

The ventral airlock opened near the crew’s quarters, and the lockdown meant they would have to burn through every door they came across. That gave Iris time to set a trap. Unfortunately, it was also near the engine room, and Iris couldn’t risk them going there and getting to Mick and Jax. She had Gideon open a single door, an easier route that would lead them away from the engines, but gave her less time to prepare. If there was anything she’d learned from this ordeal, it was that every second counted. She only had so much time before Mick and Jax managed to rig the engine room door open, she only had so much time before Barry woke up and phased him and Leonard out, she only had so much time before the enemy AI found a chink in Gideon’s defence and she lost her only ally. Iris had done this so many times, and yet it was time that she never seemed to have enough of.

* * *

 

“You just have a bomb lying around?” Iris hissed incredulously as Jax set the trap.

 

“Personally? No,” Jax scoffed in a whisper. “I got this from Rory’s room. You would not believe the junk he has in there.” He paused, his face falling. “Had, I guess.”

 

“I finished rigging the sensors,” Barry announced quietly as he flashed next to them. His eyes landed on Iris. “I don’t like this. Are you sure I can’t just-”

 

“No!” Iris hissed vehemently. “The millisecond that robot senses a speedster, their energy trap will activate. Please, Barry,” she implored, reaching out and pulling him close. “I can’t watch you die again.”

 

“Okay, I promise I’ll stay with you,” he murmured into her hair. Oddly, it was Barry and Jax who took the most convincing to believe her about the time loops. It was faster if Mick or Leonard were there, but Mick currently lay in two pieces from where the lasers used to cut through the doors had hit him, and Leonard had sacrificed himself after that by hitting an airlock release to space himself and a shuttle’s worth of pirates.

 

“Okay, we’re all set,” Jax whispered, bringing Iris’s thoughts back to the present. “We should hide.”

* * *

 

Three of the pirates went through the open door and were promptly knocked back by the small concussive charge Iris had grabbed from Mick’s room. The explosion alerted their brethren, two of which broke off from the group trying to get to the engine room to investigate. The second they stepped into the kitchen area where their fellows lay, the door slammed shut behind them.

 

“Captain West, I am under cyber attack. Defending will take up much of my processing power and may severely limit my capabilities,” Gideon chimed in Iris’s ear.

 

“Do what you gotta do. Don’t let that bastard take you down, girl, you got this,” Iris whispered, feeling her stomach churn as she lost her best asset. She knew Gideon would win, she always did, but it was always too late. From the now contained kitchen area, Iris heard and felt the larger bomb she had set go off. That left three pirates on board. Iris raised her rifle to her shoulder and silently headed in the direction of the engine room.

* * *

 

“You can do this,” Iris whispered with steely determination. Her hands were rock steady as she raised the futuristic rifle. “You know what happens if you don't. Gideon, now!”

 

The door opened. Iris fired.

 

BLAM!

 

The pirate went down, his eye reduced to a gaping red hole. Iris felt like her heart was encased in ice, hardening herself to what she was doing as she took aim at the next man before the leader had even hit the ground.

 

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

 

Shot after shot Iris hit, successfully giving the others the chance they needed to break away from their captors and take cover. All but Barry, who was stuck behind the transparent walls of an energy prison. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mick and Leonard dive for the doorway she was taking cover by. Without missing a beat, she kicked over the two guns she’d grabbed on her way, feeling a swell of happiness as Captain Cold and Heatwave picked up the weapons that gave them their names. For a moment, Iris felt a swell of hope that they might just survive this time.

 

“Jax!”

 

“Barry, NO!”

 

But Iris’s warning was too late. Barry disintegrated as he attempted to phase out of his prison, and there was nothing to stop the hunter who’d snuck up on Jax from shooting him in the head. Iris gasped, her stomach dropping. Not again.

* * *

 

Iris peeked around the corner and had to quickly yank her head back as blaster fire missed her by inches, singeing a few hairs as the shots flew past. She hadn’t gotten anything close to a good look, but she had seen enough to know that only two of them were by the door, and she was pretty sure one of them was the damn robot. That left two others unaccounted for.

 

“Gideon, what’s your status?” she asked, hoping against hope that she had her one ally back.

 

“Life support and all essential functions maintained. Extremely limited processing capacity remains,” Gideon answered like the machine she was, her voice lacking it’s usual personality. Iris swore softly, knowing there would be no help there.

 

“Plan B it is.”

 

Iris didn’t bother to look around the corner, she just tossed the little balls she’d swiped from Sara’s room. The second they hit the ground, a debilitating shriek echoed through the small space. The human pirate screamed in pain, but the robot was unaffected. It simply turned away from the laser it was manning to shoot the offending orbs. That was all the distraction Iris needed. She aimed around the corner and shot the robot repeatedly, aiming first for the compartment she knew housed the deadly speedster trap. With that destroyed, she aimed for the head unit, reducing it to a mash of twisted metal and wires before it toppled over, thoroughly deactivated. By that time, the human pirate had managed to recover, but it was too late. Iris shot him in the head just as the laser broke through the door and Mick Rory burst out with a roar, a heavy crowbar held aloft. He stopped short at the sight of Iris, armed and covered in soot, dust and grease from her adventures with the jumpship and the crawlspace.

 

“The fuck is going on?” he demanded. Behind him, Jax poked his head through the hole in the door, his eyes widening at the scene of destruction.

 

“The hell? Is that a freakin’ robot?” he shook his head, apparently prioritising. “Why isn’t Gideon responding?”

 

“Because I activated her master codes,” Iris answered.

 

“How the hell you know the master codes? Only Rip and Sara know those,” Mick growled suspiciously. Iris didn’t even blink at his tone.

 

“Because she told them to me. Now get to back in there and stay there.” She raised her rifle back up to her shoulder. “If you leave, you die. Trust me.” With those words, she headed off to find the last two pirates.

* * *

 

“Gideon?” Iris whispered. She was currently curled up in a ball in the armoury. She couldn’t bring herself to step outside, couldn’t handle more death. “Are you still there?”

 

“I am, Iris,” Gideon responded, her voice soft and kind in a way Iris hadn’t thought a machine capable of. “There is a malicious AI attempting to breach my defences, however, so I cannot say for how long. I will have to devote most of my processing power in defence soon.”

 

“I know,” Iris said sadly. “Can you tell me...are they still alive?”

 

There was a pause. Iris didn’t know if it was because Gideon was busy with the other AI or if it was because the news she had to give actually pained her.

 

“Mr Rory and Mr Jackson have perished, I’m afraid. Mr Allen has gone into shock after losing an arm attempting to breach his energy prison. Mr Snart remains free, hidden in the smuggling compartment, but he is badly wounded.”

 

Iris felt like she should be crying, but she was just so drained, emotionally and physically. She felt as if she had been running for days.

 

“Miss West, I don’t have much time,” Gideon said suddenly, her voice coming out mechanical and stiff. “If I give you my master codes, you can use them to order me to vent areas of the ship.”

 

“But Barry and Leonard are still alive!” Iris protested.

 

“Actually, Mr Allen has just perished from shock and severe blood-loss. Mr Snart is hemorrhaging from a thigh wound and will soon die. There isn’-isn’t m-uch t-time.”

 

Iris stared blankly into nothing as she thought of Barry, dying alone on the bridge, of Leonard, dying alone crawling through the ship’s underbelly. This wasn’t right. They were meant to be more than this. They weren’t meant to die like this. She had a promise to keep.

 

“Gideon, give me the codes.”

* * *

Iris made her way back to the bridge. Without Gideon, flying would be a lot harder, but she’d done it a few times now. She hoped she could handle it. She walked into a trap. One of the pirates was waiting for her. She dived for cover the instant she saw movement, but still caught a blaster bolt to the chest. Her jacket smoked and crumbled as she groaned on the floor in pain. Her jacket may be bulletproof, but blasters were another matter. It could absorb the shot, but the section where it hit would then be rendered no more defensive than normal clothing. Iris had learned that the hard way 35 loops ago. She let the pain wash through her, focusing on listening for approaching steps just in case the pirate decided to get closer for a better shot. She heard nothing.

 

Once she’d recovered enough to try shooting, she glanced over the console she had dived behind. She had to duck back down quickly as he immediately let off a shot. He was a good shot too, Iris’s reflexes were the only reason she was still breathing. Out of nowhere, the ship shuddered. Iris felt the familiar deceleration as the pursuing ship’s mag-harpoons tried to reel the Waverider in. The pirate, however, didn’t brace himself in time and stumbled. Iris took the shot, leaving a smoking hole in his chest and a look of surprise on his face. Iris strode past his corpse, forcing herself not to remember all the other corpses she’d seen laid out on the bridge before, and took the ship’s controls. The other ship was still reeling them in, so Iris did the last thing they would expect.

 

She braced herself, turned the ship around and shot forward, firing.

 

She sacrificed flight finesse to aim, missing Gideon’s aid fiercely. She managed to hit her targets, the two massive spools the mag-harpoons attached to. Without their power source, the magnets detached, and at the very last second, Iris threw the ship vertical, flying up the face of the other ship and over it, heading back the way they’d come. The other ship was much larger, and took longer to turn and accelerate. She’d successfully bought them some time.

 

BLAM! BLAM!

 

Iris felt all the air punch out of her lungs as two shots hit her back in quick succession. She slumped forward over the console, feeling like her whole body was on fire but unable to scream. The last pirate strode through the doorway, her rifle still smoking from her shots. Iris’s own rifle had swung forward on its strap and was wedged between her body and the console. The pirate took another step forward and raised her rifle, aiming for Iris’s head. Fighting through her agony, Iris shifted her gun’s angle a few degrees and fired. The pirate went down with a shot to her gut and a look of surprise on her face, and the kick sent Iris sliding off the console to come to rest on the floor.

 

Breathing was hard and there was blood everywhere, but Iris smiled. In the doorway stood Barry and Leonard, escaped from the armoury, frozen in shock at the sight before them. They were alive and unharmed, and Iris could ask for little better as a last sight. Barry flashed forward to her side instantly, his hands shaking as he tried to think of some way to save her. Leonard took the time to shoot the last pirate in the head for good measure before kneeling on Iris’s other side, his face grim.

 

“H-hey, hey,” Iris spoke through the blood in her throat. “Don’t cry,” she told Barry, trying and failing to raise a hand to brush away his tears. He caught her hand in his instead, squeezing it tight.

 

“It’ll be okay, Iris, we’ll get you to the medbay-” Barry babbled, but Leonard shook his head.

 

“Without Gideon, the medbay is just a room,” he countered solemnly. “I’m sorry.” It was unclear whether he was talking to her or Barry, but the genuine sentiment was clear in his voice.

 

“It’sss okay,” she assured him, finding the strength to grab Leonard’s hand with her free hand, much to his surprise. “I won. You, you’re both a- both alive. Only t-took me fif-*cough*-52 loops...you jus’ have to outf-fly them now.” She coughed wetly again, blood coating her tongue and her lips. She shivered, feeling colder by the second, and she squeezed their hands harder, holding on to their warmth one last time.

 

“No, Iris, please, you just have to hold on!” Barry begged, tears streaming down his face. On her other side, Leonard was silent, his eyes bright with sorrow.

 

“I-I love y-you...Barry. Don’t l-ose yourssself ‘cause I, I’m gone. P-promissse me,” she implored.

 

“I promise. I love you too, Iris, so much. Please, just hold on!”

 

“Leonard,” Iris managed to focus on other man at her side, although her vision was going foggy. “H-hold h-im to th-that for me?” Leonard nodded solemnly and Iris managed a shaky smile. “I didn’t muh-mean to...b-but I don’t re-regret f-alling in...in love w-ith you..too.”

 

She sighed, feeling the chill overtake her, numbing her pains. Her vision was tunneling and she felt her strength ebb. It was over. It was finally over.

 

“W-worse...ways t’die...thn...with...p-peop-ple...I...love…”

 

Everything went black.

* * *

Barry screamed his grief in a primal roar. Leonard wept, silent tears falling as he sat frozen over Iris’s corpse. She wouldn’t have thought he would weep for her. He didn’t remember most of it, didn’t know of the hours spent fighting at each others side, facing death together in an endless, torturous loop. And yet he grieved now with a depth he could barely understand. He finally moved, raising a shaky hand to Barry’s shoulder in an unexpected gesture of comfort. Barry immediately leaned into it, the pair of them soon leaning against each other, Leonard’s arm around Barry as they both grieved.

 

Mick and Jax found them like that, kneeling over Iris’s still corpse. It was Mick who moved her body, carrying her to the medbay and closing her unseeing eyes. He gently cleaned the blood from her face and lay a respectful sheet over her. He whispered his thanks into the empty air, wondering why it felt so hard to see her like this. It was Jax, wiping away his own tears, who stepped up to pilot, easily outrunning their pursuers with the headstart Iris had given them. It was Leonard who stayed sitting on the floor with Barry, just holding him as he cried and cried and cried.

 

Iris watched it all, aching to reach out and comfort them.

 

“It’s never easy, this part.”

 

Iris startled at the unexpected voice. The world around her felt muted, all the colour leached out and the volume turned down. The only thing that seemed real was the woman standing next to her. She had snow-white skin, hair as black as the void of space and eyeliner game that made Iris envious.

 

“You’re Death, aren’t you?”

 

The woman nodded, giving Iris a solemn smile.

 

“But don’t worry. Lucky for you, this isn’t the last time we’ll meet.”

 

Iris frowned. “I don’t understand.”

 

“It’s a long story,” Death said. “Short version is that my brother was trapped. He,” she gestured towards Leonard, “broke the chains. But as long as those chains existed, he couldn’t be truly free. You used the power of those chains to save your loved ones, and in doing so, drained them. Made them powerless. Destiny can never be trapped again.”

 

“I...I still don’t really understand,” Iris admitted, her head reeling.

 

“That’s okay.” Death shrugged. “Most of it’s pretty big picture. What’s important for you is that the work and the sacrifice you made are about to be rewarded.”

 

“How?” Iris asked, barely daring to hope.

 

Death smiled broadly at her, and Iris couldn’t describe the feeling she got from the sight, only knew that it was enormous and profound.

 

“Like I said. This isn’t the last time we’ll meet. See you in a lifetime, Iris West.”

* * *

 

Mick called the Legends and told them to gather at STAR labs. Jax called Team Flash and told them to assemble. Barry carried Iris’s body into the labs, the sheet around her like a flowing gown but her peaceful face uncovered. The four men entered the cortex like a funeral procession, heads bowed.

 

Joe staggered when he saw the body, caught and held on his feet by HR, who was utterly speechless. Wally chanted no softly under his breath as he backed away, eventually crumbling into Cisco’s arms, who in turn had fat tears falling down his cheeks. The Legends all wore varying looks of shock or grief for those who had known her. Barely a word was said as Barry gently lay her body down on the medical bed. He stood over her body, suppressing a sob and sniffling as he breathed.

 

“What happened, Barry?” Joe finally croaked. “What happened to my baby girl?”

 

“She saved us.”

 

Everyone was surprised when it was Mick who answered, but no one commented. Leonard moved up to stand beside Barry, taking his hand and squeezing it. Barry squeezed back.

 

“We were attacked by Time Pirates,” Mick continued. “They dragged us into the timestream. Had an AI who took out Gideon for a while. Locked down the whole ship and boarded us. Iris took down all the pirates. Every last one.” His voice cracked with unexpected pride. “Even the bitch who shot her in the back, Iris had the last laugh. She even flew the ship, got us away.” He chuckled without mirth. “No idea how the fuck she did that.”

 

Silence stretched out, broken only by heavy sobs as every eye looked to the lifeless body and remembered the vibrant, capable and intelligent woman it had once been.

 

“52 loops.”

 

All eyes turned to Leonard at his whispered words, but only Barry understood.

 

“That’s what she said,” he said slowly. “Right before she...before. She said it only took her 52 loops.”

 

“What are you talking about? Loops?” Amaya asked. As one of the few who hadn’t known Iris personally, she was one of the few not frozen in grief.

 

Barry shrugged, lost, but Leonard began to pace, his fingers twitching as he thought.

 

“What she said was ‘I won, you’re both alive, it only took me 52 loops’,” he thought aloud, the assembled group watching him with confused eyes.

 

“What, you’re thinking time loops?” Cisco interjected, incredulous, “Iris is dead, now is not the time to be playin’, okay?”

 

“No, wait,” Barry said, coming out of his grief-fueled haze. “Didn’t you say Iris started acting weird? Right before she locked us in the armoury?”

 

“Yeah,” Leonard agreed. “Like she knew exactly what was gonna happen. Like...some things had already happened.”

 

“She told me and Mick that if we left the engine room, we’d die,” Jax added hesitantly. “Like, she was _sure_.”

 

“She flew the Waverider _without_ Gideon,” Mick pointed out. “You don’t just do that on instinct.”

 

“What does it matter?” Joe snarled. “My baby girl is _dead_ and y’all are goin’ on about time loops?”

 

“Wait, you were in the armoury?” Ray cut in. “She didn’t touch the...no, there’s no way it could...but maybe…?”

 

Leonard’s eyes lit up.

 

“The Sphere,” he said, looking to Ray, Stein and Jax for confirmation.

 

“Theoretically, it’s possible,” Stein said slowly. “But I don’t see how that might help poor Miss West.”

 

“We don’t really know what that thing is capable of,” Jax admitted with a shrug. “It’s worth a shot.”

 

Leonard held out a hand to Barry, whose eyes were already sparking with lightning. In a flash, the pair was gone, to return a moment later with Leonard holding the Sphere in the jaws of a monkey wrench. Barry pulled away the sheet, leaving several people to gasp at the sight of her blood soaked clothes. Without prompting, Leonard dropped the Sphere into the hand that had picked it up in the first place.

 

It glowed an intense blue, too bright to look at, before winking out, the metal losing any and all lustre.

 

Iris sat bolt upright with a gasp. She took one look at the ball in her hand and promptly threw it across the room with a shriek.

 

“Nobody touch that thing!” she shouted vehemently.

 

For a beat, the whole room stood frozen around her as Iris panted. And then there was an implosion of bodies as her family all tried to hug her at once. Iris didn’t mind, tears of happiness streaming down her face as the reality washed over her. She was free. The whole torturous ordeal was over. Barry was pressed against her side, refusing to let go. Her father and brother were the same, crowding around her in a protective cocoon as though afraid putting any distance between them would cause her to disappear. And behind them Iris could see Leonard watching from the sidelines, a genuinely relieved and happy smile on his face. Barry followed her line of sight and gave her a look of understanding.

 

“When you’re ready, we’ll talk about it,” he whispered in her ear. Iris wasn’t one hundred percent sure how that conversation would go, but she had no doubt that she would be rewarded.

**Author's Note:**

> I cried. I am so sorry.


End file.
